canals and inland waterways

▪ waterway

Introduction

      natural or artificial waterways used for navigation, crop irrigation, water supply, or drainage.

      Despite modern technological advances in air and ground transportation, inland waterways continue to fill a vital role and, in many areas, to grow substantially. This article traces the history of canal building from the earliest times to the present day and describes both the constructional and operational engineering techniques used and the major inland waterways and networks throughout the world.

      Transport by inland waterways may be by navigable rivers or those made navigable by canalization (dredging and bank protection) or on artificial waterways called canals. Many inland waterways are multipurpose, providing drainage, irrigation, water supply, and generation of hydroelectric power as well as navigation. The lay of the land (topography) and particularly changes in water levels require that many rivers (river) be regulated to make them fully navigable, thus enabling vessels to proceed from one water level to another. The chief regulating method is the lock, the development of which contributed significantly to the Industrial Revolution and the development of modern industrial society.

      For many types of commodities, particularly such bulk commodities as grains, coal, and ore, inland waterway transport is still more economical than any other kind of transport. Thus, it is hardly surprising that modernized inland waterways, using the latest navigational aids and traction methods and traversing the great landmasses of North America, Europe, and Asia, play an increasingly important economic role.

History

Ancient works

      Most of the improvement of rivers and construction of artificial waterways in antiquity (Middle East, ancient) was for irrigation (irrigation and drainage) purposes. In the 7th century BC the Assyrian (Assyria) king Sennacherib built a 50-mile (80-km) stone-lined canal 66 feet (20 metres) wide to bring fresh water from Bavian to Nineveh. The work, which included a stone aqueduct 300 yards (330 metres) long, was constructed in one year and three months, according to a plaque that survives on the site. Surprisingly advanced techniques were used, including a dam with sluice gates allowing regulation of the flow of the water stored. The Phoenicians, Assyrians, Sumerians, and Egyptians all constructed elaborate canal systems. The most spectacular canal of this period was probably Nahrawān, 400 feet wide and 200 miles long, built to provide a year-round navigation channel from near Sāmarrāʾ to Al-Kūt, using water provided by damming the unevenly flowing Tigris. Many elaborate canals are known to have been built in Babylonia. In Egypt the Nile was dammed to control its floodwaters, and an extensive system of basin irrigation was established. The Persian king Darius (Darius I) in the 5th century BC cut a canal from the Nile River to the Red Sea. The Romans (ancient Rome) were responsible for very extensive systems of river regulation and canals in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Great Britain for military transport. The legions in Gaul canalized one of the mouths of the Rhône to protect their overseas supply route. In the 1st century AD the Roman consul Marcus Livius Drusus (Drusus, Marcus Livius) dug a canal between the Rhine and Yssel to relieve the Rhine of surplus water, and the Roman general Corbulo (Corbulo, Gnaeus Domitius) linked the Rhine and Meuse with a canal 23 miles (37 km) long to avoid the stormy North Sea passage from Germany to the coast. Attempting to reclaim the Fens in England, the Romans connected the River Cam with the Ouse by an 8-mile canal, the Nene with the Witham by one 25 miles long, and the Witham with the Trent by the Fosse Dyke (ditch), still in use.

      Outside Europe and the Middle East, between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD, the Chinese (China) built impressive canals. Outstanding were the Ling Canal in Kuangsi, 90 miles long from the Han capital; Changan (Sian) to the Huang He (Yellow River); and the Pien Canal in Honan. Of later canals the most spectacular was the Grand Canal, the first 600-mile section of which was opened to navigation in 610. This waterway enabled grain to be transported from the lower Yangtze and the Huai to Kaifeng and Luoyang. These canals had easy gradients (changes in water levels); and at about three-mile intervals there were single gates of stone or timber abutments with vertical grooves up or down along which the log closure was manually hauled by ropes to hold or release the water, thus controlling the water level. A few more elaborate gates had to be raised by windlasses. Where water level changes were too great for such simple devices, double slipways were built and vessels were hauled up the inclines.

Medieval (Middle Ages) revival

      In Europe, canal building, which appears to have lapsed after the fall of the Roman Empire, was revived by commercial expansion in the 12th century. River navigation was considerably improved and artificial waterways were developed with the construction of stanches, or flash locks, in the weirs (dams) of water mills and at intervals along the waterways. Such a lock could be opened suddenly, releasing a torrent that carried a vessel over a shallow place. The commercially advanced and level Low Countries developed a system of canals using the drainage of the marshland at the mouths of the Schelde, Meuse, and Rhine; about 85 percent of medieval transport in the region went by inland waterway.

      Because shipping was handicapped where barges had to be towed over the weirs with windlasses or manually, the lock and lock basin were evolved to raise boats from one level to another. Although a primitive form of lock had been in operation as early as 1180 at Damme, on the canal from Brugge to the sea, the first example of the modern pound lock, which impounded water, was probably that built at Vreeswijk, Neth., in 1373, at the junction of the canal from Utrecht with the Lek River. Outer and inner gates contained a basin, the water level of which was controlled by alternatively winding up and lowering the gates. In the 15th century the lock-gate system was much improved with the addition of paddles to control the flow of water in and out of the lock chamber through sluices in the gates or sides of the lock.

      Commercial needs soon encouraged canal construction in less ideal locations. The Stecknitz Canal, built in Germany (1391–98), ran 21 miles from Lake Möllner down to Lübeck, with a fall of 40 feet controlled with four stanches; the canal was later extended south to Lauenburg on the Elbe to establish a link between the Baltic and the North Sea. To deal with a fall from the summit to Lauenburg of 42 feet in 15 miles, two large locks were built, each capable of holding 10 small barges.

       Italy, the other principal commercial region of medieval Europe, also made important contributions to waterway technology. The Naviglio Grande Canal was constructed (1179–1209) with an intake on the Ticino River, a fall of 110 feet in 31 miles to Abbiategrasso and Milan, the water level being controlled by sluices. To facilitate transport of marble from the quarries for the building of the Milan cathedral, the canal was linked with an old moat, and in Italy the first pound lock with mitre instead of the earlier portcullis gates was constructed to overcome differences in water level.

       China may have been ahead of Europe in canal building. Between 1280 and 1293 the 700-mile northern branch of the Grand Canal was built from Huai'an to Beijing. One section, crossing the Shantung foothills, was in effect the first summit-level canal, one that rises then falls, as opposed to a lateral canal, which has a continuous fall only. The Huang He (Yellow River) was linked with a group of lakes about 100 miles south, where the land rose 50 feet higher; and, to overcome water lost through operation of the lock gates, two small rivers were partially diverted to flow into the summit level.

The 16th to 18th century

      The development of the mitre lock, a double-leaf gate the closure of which formed an angle pointing upstream, heralded a period of extensive canal construction during the 16th and 17th centuries. The canals and canalized rivers of that period foreshadowed the European network to be developed over many years.

France

      In France the Briare and Languedoc canals (Midi Canal) were built, the former linking the Loire and Seine and the latter, also known as the Canal du Midi, linking Toulouse with the Mediterranean. Both were remarkable feats of engineering. The Briare Canal (completed 1642) rose 128 feet to a plateau with a summit level 3.75 miles long and then dropped 266 feet to the Loing at Montargis. It included 40 locks, of which a unique feature was a staircase of six locks to cope with the fall of 65 feet on the descent from the Loing to Rogny. Construction of the 150-mile Canal du Midi joining the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean via the Garonne and the Aude ran through very rugged terrain. Begun in 1666 and finished in 1692, it rose 206 feet in 32 miles from the Garonne at Toulouse to the summit through 26 locks, and, after a three-mile stretch along the summit, then descended 620 feet through 74 locks for 115 miles. Near Béziers a staircase of eight locks was built, and six miles farther upstream a tunnel 180 yards long was constructed; three major aqueducts carried it over rivers, and numerous streams were diverted beneath it in culverts. The most notable technical achievement was a complex summit water supply that included unique diversion of flows and storage provision.

Flanders

      The canal system in Flanders included one from Brussels to Willebroeck on the Rupel to shorten navigation by half, an 18 ¹/₂-mile canal with four locks; another of 44 miles was constructed from Brugge to Passchendaele, Nieuport, and Dunkirk and was later extended to Ostend, while Dunkirk was linked with the Aa River, at the mouth of which a large tide lock was constructed at Gravelines. The outstanding achievement in Flanders was a lock at Boesinghe on the canal from Ypres to Boesinghe beside the Yser River. The fall of 20 feet on this four-mile stretch was contained by a single large lock. Side ponds with ground sluices were provided for the first time to reduce the loss of water during the lock's operation. The ponds took one-third of the water when the lock was emptied and returned it for the filling.

Germany

 In Germany the 15-mile Friedrich Wilhelm Summit Canal, completed in 1669, rose from Neuhaus on the Spree for 10 feet in two locks and from west of the summit fell 65 feet to Brieskow on the Oder. An extensive system of waterways in this part of Germany was finally established with the opening of the Plauer Canal in 1746, which ran from the Elbe to the Havel. The 25-mile Finow Canal along the Havel to the Liepe, a tributary of the Oder, had been built earlier but fell into decay because of flooding and neglect and was not rebuilt until 1751. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, under the great elector of Brandenburg and Frederick I of Prussia, the three great rivers, the Elbe (Elbe River), Oder (Oder River), and Weser (Weser River), were linked by canal for commercial and political reasons, including the bypassing of tolls charged by the numerous states and petty principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. In the Low Countries, wars, political considerations, and the rivalry between the Dutch and Belgian ports handicapped canal building. The Dutch, for example, strongly opposed a Rhine-Meuse-Schelde canal, fearing diversion of trade to Antwerp.

Great Britain (United Kingdom)

      The first lock was not built on an English canal until the 16th century, and the canal era proper dates from the construction of the Bridgewater Canal to carry coal from Worsley to Manchester in the 18th century by the engineer James Brindley (Brindley, James). Opened for navigation in 1761, it was extended to the Mersey in 1776. Its success promoted a period of intense canal construction that established a network of inland waterways serving the Industrial Revolution and contributing to Britain's prosperity in the half-century preceding the railway era, which began in the mid-19th century. The Grand Trunk Canal established a cross-England route by linking the Mersey to the Trent, opened up the Midlands, and provided water transport for exports to European markets. There followed the link between the Thames and the Bristol Channel provided by the Severn Canal and the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal from Sharpness on the Severn to Gloucester. Birmingham's (Birmingham) growth and industrial prosperity were stimulated because the city became the centre of a canal system that connected London, the Bristol Channel, the Mersey, and the Humber. The Caledonian (Caledonian Canal) Ship Canal across Scotland, joining the chain of freshwater lakes along the line of the Great Glen, was built between 1803 and 1822.

      One of the few canals to be built after the canal era was the 36-mile-long Manchester Ship Canal, which was opened in 1894 to give oceangoing vessels access from the Mersey estuary to Manchester.

Technological development

      This spate of canal construction was accompanied by technological development in both construction methods and operation. Locks, inclined planes (inclined plane), and lifts were developed to cope with changes in water level. At Bingley, for example, on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, a lock staircase was built; and on the hilly areas at Ketley in Shropshire, inclined planes were constructed in 1788 to haul tugboats from one level to another. The longest plane, about 225 feet, was on the Hobbacott Down plane of the Bude Canal in Cornwall. Vertical lifts counterweighted by water were also used; a set of seven was built on the Grand Western Canal; while at Anderton in Cheshire a lift (elevator) was later converted to electrical power and was still operating in the 20th century. The most spectacular inclined plane was built in the United States on the Morris Canal, which linked the Hudson and Delaware rivers. For a rise of 900 feet to the Alleghenies watershed, 22 locks were installed at the head of an inclined plane and, descending on a gradient of 1 in 10 to 1 in 12, ran down to the pound below. Barges 79 feet long with loads up to 30 tons were hauled up by trolleys running on rails, on which they settled as the lock emptied; the barges descended under gravity into the lower pound to float on an even keel when the water leveled off. In the reverse direction, they were hauled up by a drum-and-cable mechanism.

The 19th century

Europe

      In Europe, where the canal era had also started toward the end of the 17th century and continued well into the 18th, France took the lead, integrating its national waterway system further by forging the missing links. In the north the Saint-Quentin Canal, with a 3 ¹/₂-mile tunnel, opened in 1810, linking the North Sea and the Schelde and Lys systems with the English Channel via the Somme and with Paris and Le Havre via the Oise and Seine. In the interior the Canal du Centre connected the Loire at Digoin with the Sâone at Chalon and completed the first inland route from the English Channel to the Mediterranean; the Sâone and Seine were linked farther north to give a more direct route from Paris to Lyon; the Rhine-Rhône Canal, opened in 1834, provided a direct north-to-south route; while the Sambre-Oise Canal linked the French canal system with the Belgian network via the Meuse. Toward the end of the 19th century, France embarked on the standardization of its canal system to facilitate through communication without transshipment. The ultimate result was a doubling of traffic between the opening of the century and World War II.

      Industrial development in the early 19th century prompted Belgium to extend its inland waterways, especially to carry coal from Mons and Charleroi to Paris and northern France. Among the new canals and extensions built were the Mons-Condé and the Pommeroeul-Antoing canals, which connected the Haine and the Schelde; the Sambre was canalized; the Willebroek Canal was extended southward with the building of the Charleroi-Brussels Canal in 1827; and somewhat later the Campine routes were opened to serve Antwerp and connect the Meuse and Schelde. When the growth of the textile trade in Ghent created a need for better water transport, the Gent Ship Canal (Ghent-Terneuzen Canal), cut through to Terneuzen, was opened in 1827, giving a shorter route to the sea. The Dutch (Netherlands, The) extended their canals to serve the continental European industrial north. The Maastricht-Liège Canal was opened in 1850, enabling raw materials and steel to be transported from the Meuse and Sambre industrial areas by waterway throughout The Netherlands. In 1824 a long ship canal was built to bypass silting that obstructed navigation on the IJsselmeer (Zuiderzee) and to enter the North Sea in the Texel Roads. Later an even shorter ship canal was built to IJmuiden.

      In Scandinavia new canals were built to facilitate transport of timber and mineral products. In 1832 the new Göta Canal was opened, crossing the country from the Baltic to the Skagerrak and incorporating 63 locks. The political climate was less favourable for canal building in central Europe, but the Ludwig Canal, forming part of the Rhine-Main-Danube (Main-Danube Canal) route, was opened in 1840. At the same time, steps were taken to improve river navigation generally, to provide speedier transport, and to enable a greater volume of freight to be carried. The Danube (Danube River) was regulated for 144 miles from Ennsmundung to Theuben, and the Franz Canal was dug in Hungary to join the Danube and Tisza. A nationwide Russian (Russia) canal system connecting the Baltic and Caspian seas via the Neva and Volga rivers became navigable in 1718. A more direct route was established in 1804 with a canal between the Beresina and Dvina rivers. In the 19th century Russia made connections between the heads of navigation of its great rivers, the Volga, Dnepr, Don, Dvina, and Ob.

      An outstanding engineering achievement in Greece was the cutting of a deep ship canal at sea level through the Isthmus of Corinth (Corinth Canal) to connect the Aegean and Ionian seas. The Roman emperor Nero had first attempted this linking in the 1st century AD; the shafts sunk by him were reopened and sunk to their full depth. The canal, about 3.9 miles long, has a minimum depth of 26.2 feet and a minimum width of 68.9 feet at the bottom increasing to 80.7 feet at surface level. Dug in 1881–93, it is bounded by almost vertical rock cliffs that rise to more than 259 feet above water level in the canal's midsection.

United States

      In the United States, canal building began slowly; only 100 miles of canals had been built at the beginning of the 19th century; but before the end of the century more than 4,000 miles were open to navigation. With wagon haulage difficult, slow, and costly for bulk commodities, water transport was the key to the opening up of the interior, but the way was barred by the Allegheny Mountains. To overcome this obstacle, it was necessary to go north by sea via the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes or south to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi. A third possibility was the linking of the Great Lakes with the Hudson via the Mohawk Valley. The Erie Canal, 363 miles long with 82 locks from Albany on the Hudson to Buffalo on Lake Erie, was built by the state of New York from 1817 to 1825. Highly successful from the start, it opened up the Midwestern prairies, the produce of which could flow eastward to New York, with manufactured goods making the return journey westward, giving New York predominance over other Atlantic seaboard ports. The Champlain Canal was opened in 1823; but not until 1843, with the completion of the Chambly Canal, was access to the St. Lawrence made possible via the Richelieu River. Meanwhile, Canada had constructed the Welland Canal linking Lakes Ontario and Erie. Opened in 1829, it overcame the 327-foot difference in elevation with 40 locks, making navigation possible to Lake Michigan and Chicago. Later the St. Mary's Falls Canal connected Lake Huron and Lake Superior. To provide a southern route around the Allegheny Mountains, the Susquehanna and Ohio rivers were linked in 1834 by a 394-mile canal between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. A unique feature of this route was the combination of water and rail transport with a 37-mile portage by rail by five inclined planes rising 1,399 feet to the summit station 2,334 feet above sea level and then falling 1,150 feet to Johnstown on the far side of the mountains, where a 105-mile canal with 68 locks ran to Pittsburgh. By 1856 a series of canals linked this canal system to the Erie Canal.

      Meanwhile, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 had given the United States control of the Mississippi River, and it became the main waterway for the movement of Midwestern produce via New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. Developments included the Illinois-Michigan Canal, connecting the two great water systems of the continent, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Entering Lake Michigan at Chicago, then a mere village, the canal triggered the city's explosive growth. Several canals were constructed subsequently to link up with the Erie and Welland canals and the St. Lawrence, and a comprehensive network of inland waterways was established.

Impact of the railways (railroad)

      With the development of rail transport in the 19th century, canals declined as the dominant carriers of freight, particularly in the United States and Britain. In continental Europe the impact was less marked, because the great natural rivers already linked by artificial waterways constituted an international network providing transport economically without transshipment; the terrain was more favourable and the canals larger and less obstructed by locks. Elsewhere canals could not compete with rail. They were limited both in the volume carried per unit and in speed; they were too small, too slow, and fragmented; and the railways, as they became integrated into national systems, provided a far more extensive service with greater flexibility. The canals were further handicapped because they were not, for the most part, common carriers themselves but were largely dependent on intermediate carrying companies. Although transport on the canals was for some time cheaper than rail, the railways gradually overcame this advantage. To modernize and extend the waterways to enable larger boats to ply them, to reduce the number of locks that slowed down movement, and to provide a more comprehensive service all required capital investment on a scale that made the return problematic. The railways exploited the difficulties of the canals by drastic rate cutting that forced many canal companies to sell out to them. In Britain a third of the canals had become railway-owned in the 1840s and '50s, and many were subsequently closed down. In the United States, half the canals were abandoned. The railways thus succeeded in eliminating their competition and obtained a near monopoly of transport, which they held until the arrival of the motor age.

Three great canals

The Kiel Canal

      The 19th century saw the construction of the Kiel and Suez canals. The former carries tonnage many times that of most other canals. Frequent attempts had been made to make a route from the Baltic to the North Sea and thus to bypass the Kattegat and the dangerous Skagerrak. The Vikings had portaged ships on rollers across the 10-mile Kiel watershed, but not until 1784 was the Eider Canal constructed between the Gulf of Kiel and the Eider Lakes. A little more than 100 years later, to accommodate the largest ships, including those of the new German navy, the Kiel Canal was widened, deepened, and straightened, cutting the distance from the English Channel to the Baltic by several hundred miles. Running 59 miles from locks at Brunsbüttel on the North Sea to the Haltenau locks on the Gulf of Kiel, the canal crosses easy country but has one unique engineering feature. At Rendsburg, to give clearance to the largest ships, the railway was made to spiral over the city on an ascending viaduct that crosses over itself before running on to the main span above the water.

The Suez Canal

 The Isthmus of Suez so obviously provided a short sea route from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and beyond as against the sea voyage around Africa that a canal was dug in antiquity; it fell into disuse, was frequently restored, and finally was blocked about the 8th century. Later there were many projects and surveys, but nothing happened until 1854, when Ferdinand de Lesseps (Lesseps, Ferdinand, vicomte de), who had served as a diplomat for France in Egypt, persuaded Saʿīd Pasha, the viceroy of Egypt, to grant a preliminary concession for construction of a new canal across the isthmus. A later report recommended a sea-level lockless canal between Suez and the Gulf of Pelusium; and the original concession was superseded by one granted in 1856 to the Suez Canal Company, an international consortium. The concession was to last for 99 years from the canal's opening to navigation, after which it was to revert to the Egyptian government; the canal was to be an international waterway, open at all times to all ships without discrimination. In addition to the ship canal, the company undertook to excavate a freshwater canal from the Nile at Bûlâq to Ismailia, with a branch extending to the Suez, to be available for smaller ships. Work on the ship canal lasted 10 years, during which time political, financial, contractual, and physical difficulties were overcome, and the canal was opened on Nov. 17, 1869. As ultimately constructed, it was a 105-mile lockless waterway connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. From its northern terminal at Port Said, the canal passes through the salt marsh area of Lake Manzala, with the freshwater canal running parallel. About 30 miles from Port Said, a seven-mile bypass built between 1949 and 1951 enables convoys to pass. At about the halfway point the canal enters Lake Timsah and passes Ismailia. Thence the waterway proceeds through the Bitter Lakes and on to Port Tawfīq, the southern terminal on the Red Sea, a few miles from the town of Suez. Since its construction, the canal has been constantly improved; originally 200 feet wide with a maximum depth of 24 feet, it was widened in 1954 to 500 feet at water level and 196 feet at a depth of 33 feet, with the main channel 45 feet deep, enabling ships of a maximum draft of 37 feet to navigate the canal.

      The canal remained open despite much political controversy. Nationalized by Egypt in 1956, it was blocked in 1967 after the Arab-Israeli War and remained so until 1975.

The Panama Canal

      After his success with the Suez Canal, de Lesseps (Lesseps, Ferdinand, vicomte de) was attracted to the Isthmus of Panama, where many projects had been suggested for cutting a canal to join the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and thus make unnecessary the passage around South America. De Lesseps proposed a sea-level route via Lake Nicaragua, but construction difficulties forced him to abandon this project in favour of a high-level lock canal via Panama. Further problems, especially yellow fever among the work force, halted construction after about 78,000,000 cubic yards (60,000,000 cubic metres) of material had been excavated. Meanwhile, U.S. interest had been actively maintained, but the situation was complicated by political difficulties and questions of sovereignty. A treaty between Britain and the United States recognized the exclusive U.S. right to construct, regulate, and manage a canal across the isthmus; but Panama was Colombian territory, and the Colombia Senate refused ratification of a treaty with the United States. After a revolt, a treaty was signed with independent Panama that granted the United States exclusive use, occupation, and control of the Canal Zone in perpetuity.

      Although preliminary work started in 1904, little real progress was made because of disputes over the type of canal that should be built; not until 1906 was the high-level lock plan finally adopted, as opposed to the previously favoured sea-level plan. Largely responsible for this decision was John F. Stevens (Stevens, John Frank), who became chief engineer and architect of the canal. Completed in 1914, the canal is 51.2 miles long. At its start from the large harbour area in Limon Bay on the Caribbean Sea, it rises more than 80 feet above sea level to the Gatun Lake through the Gatun Locks and is retained at the north by these locks and dam and at the south by the Pedro Miguel Locks and Dam. The waterway then runs through the Gaillard Cut, which channels it through the Continental Divide, then between the Pedro Miguel Locks and the Miraflores Lake at an elevation of 54 feet, ships to the Pacific Ocean being lowered by them to the Balboa Harbor entrance. The Gatun Lake, with its area of 166 square miles, is an integral part of the waterway and the principal source of its water. The minimum channel depth throughout the length of the canal is 37 feet and its width 300 feet. There are 23 angles or changes of direction between the entrances. Ships normally travel through the canal under their own power except in the locks, through which they are towed by electric locomotives.

Ernest Albert John Davies

Modern waterway engineering

      Waterways are subject to definite geographic and physical restrictions that influence the engineering problems of construction, maintenance, and operation.

      The geographic restriction is that, unlike roads, railways, or pipelines, which are adaptable to irregular natural features, waterways are confined to moderate gradients; and where these change direction, the summit pounds (ponds) require an adequate supply of water, while valley pounds need facilities for disposal of surplus.

      The primary physical restriction is that vessels cannot travel through water at speeds possible for road vehicles or railway wagons. Because transport economics are based on the transport unit (x tons moved y miles in 1 man-hour), waterways must provide larger tonnage units than those possible on road or rail in order to be competitive.

      Modern waterway engineering, therefore, is directed toward providing channels suitable for larger vessels to travel faster by reducing delays at locks or from darkness and other natural hazards. While such channels and associated works are designed to minimize annual maintenance costs, the costs of operating vessels, locks, wharves, and other waterway works can be minimized by increased mechanization.

Characteristics of basic types

      Fundamentally, waterways fall into three categories, each with its particular problems: natural rivers, canalized rivers, and artificial canals.

      On natural rivers navigation is subjected to seasonal stoppages from frost, drought, or floods, all of which lead to channel movements and to the formation of shoals. While minimizing natural hazards, attention is directed primarily to retaining the channel in a predetermined course by stabilization of banks and bed, by elimination of side channels, and by easing major bends to obtain a channel of uniform cross section that follows the natural valley.

      On canalized rivers navigation is facilitated by constructing locks that create a series of steps, the length of which depends on the natural gradient of the valley and on the rise at each lock. Associated with the locks for passing vessels, weirs and sluices are required for passing surplus water; and in modern canalizations, such as the Rhône and the Rhine, hydroelectric generation has introduced deep locks with longer artificial approach channels, which require bank protection against erosion and, in some strata, bed protection against seepage losses.

      On artificial canals navigation can depart from natural river valleys and pass through hills and watersheds, crossing over valleys and streams along an artificial channel, the banks and sometimes the bed of which need protection against erosion and seepage. The route of an artificial canal can be selected to provide faster travel on long level pounds (stretches between locks), with necessary locks grouped either as a staircase with one chamber leading directly to another or as a flight with short intervening pounds. Where substantial differences of level arise or can be introduced, vertical lifts or inclined planes can be constructed. Storage reservoirs must be provided to feed the summit pound with enough water to meet lockage and evaporation losses; other reservoirs can be introduced at lower levels to meet heavier traffic movements entailing more frequent lockage operation. If supplies are insufficient to offset the losses, pumps may be needed to return water from lower to upper levels.

Channels (streambed)

Channel design

      Natural rivers and canalized rivers away from artificial cuts need no protection against seepage and only light protection of banks against erosion. The widening or cutting off of major bends assists navigation, but wholesale straightening is undesirable because the natural sinuosity of the river, though modified, should be retained. Local widening is effected by dragline excavators (excavating machine) cutting into the channel and dumping the material ashore, where it is either used to form levees or removed elsewhere. Deepening or widening beyond the reach of shore-based excavators requires a floating plant that discharges to hopper barges for transport to a disposal point or to pipelines for pumping ashore.

      Artificial canals should provide a waterway with a cross-sectional area at least five, and preferably seven, times the cross-sectional area of the loaded vessel. In rock cuttings, such as those of the Corinth Canal, the waterway cross section could be rectangular, but the normal cross section is trapezoidal, with bed width three to four times, and surface width six to eight times, the width of the vessel, while the depth must be enough to allow the water displaced by the moving vessel to flow back under the hull.

Channel construction

      The physical construction of a canal has been facilitated by the development of very large mechanical excavators. Walking draglines with 20-ton buckets, such as were used on the St. Lawrence Seaway, are more suitable for quarry or opencut coal workings; for general channel construction the more versatile tracked machines are preferred. Scrapers and dumper trucks with oversize pneumatic tires for fast travel over rough ground readily dispose of excavated materials to form embankments or other fill.

      Water losses by percolation through bed or banks must be prevented on embankments and wherever permeable strata are encountered. While the watertight skin was originally obtained by a layer of puddled clay with protective gravel covering, other materials later became available, such as fly ash from power stations, sometimes with a cement admixture; bentonite; bituminous materials; sheet polythene; or concrete.

Bridges, aqueducts, and tunnels for waterways

      Canals must frequently cross over or under roads and railways, rivers, and other canals. These crossings are made by a variety of bridges (bridge), sometimes carrying the road or railroad, sometimes carrying the canal. Most are fixed, though movable bridges are also used. On the Weaver River in England, four movable bridges, carrying main roads across the waterway, swing on pontoons.

      Canals originally crossed valleys on heavy masonry structures supporting the full formation, including puddled clay lining. Cast-iron flanged and bolted troughs later provided a lighter and watertight channel; current practice uses concrete with bituminous sealing.

      Canals were originally carried through hills and watersheds in small bricked tunnels (tunnels and underground excavations) through which vessels were propelled by manual haulage, by poling, or by legging—that is, by crewmen lying on their backs on the cabin and pushing with their feet against the tunnel roof. Later, tunnels were provided with towpaths.

Bank protection

      On natural or canalized rivers of relatively large cross section, bank erosion can be checked by rubble roughly tipped or by natural growth such as reeds or willows.

      On artificial canals of smaller dimensions, where passing vessels create a serious wash, some revetment (retaining wall) (bank protection) is essential. Sloping banks are readily protected by close-laid stone pitching, by bundles formed of interwoven willow branches, or by bituminous carpet; more permanent protection is provided by steel or concrete piles, which are close-driven, overlapping or interlocked, and protected against impact damage by horizontal fendering above the waterline and by roughly tipped rubble below the waterline. In cuttings the slopes are stabilized by berms (level strips) 6 to 10 feet wide at intervals determined by the nature of the soil. On long embankments safety stop gates can minimize water losses in the event of a breach.

Towpaths

      Originally provided for animal haulage, towpaths were adapted on many French canals for mechanical and electrical haulage until the general use of powered craft terminated this service in 1969. But the towpaths are still useful; in addition to providing ways for some local haulage by mechanical tractor, they provide valuable access to the canals for inspection and maintenance.

Locks (lock)

      On canalized rivers and artificial canals, the waterway consists of a series of level steps formed by impounding barriers through which vessels pass by a navigation lock. Basically, this device consists of a rectangular chamber with fixed sides, movable ends, and facilities for filling and emptying: when a lock is filled to the level of the upper pound, the upstream gates are opened for vessels to pass; after closing the upstream gates, water is drawn out until the lock level is again even with the lower pound, and the downstream gates are opened. Filling or emptying of the chamber is effected by manually or mechanically operated sluices. In small canals these may be on the gates, but on larger canals they are on culverts incorporated in the lock structure, with openings into the chamber through the sidewalls or floor. While the sizes of the culverts and openings govern the speed of filling or emptying the chamber, the number and location of the openings determine the extent of the water disturbance in the chamber: the design must be directed toward obtaining a maximum speed of operation with minimum turbulence. The dimensions of the chamber are determined by the size of vessels using, or likely to use, the waterway. Where the traffic is dense, duplicate or multiple chambers may be required; in long chambers intermediate gates allow individual vessels to be passed.

      Lock dimensions vary from the small, narrow canal locks of England, with chambers 72 feet long and 7 feet wide, to the 1,500-ton capacity waterways of Europe, with chambers 650 by 40 feet. On the St. Lawrence Seaway the dimensions are approximately 800 by 80 feet; on the Mississippi (Mississippi River) and Ohio rivers (Ohio River), where push-towing units are operating, the dimensions rise to 1,200 by 110 feet.

      On canalized rivers the present trend is for locks to be deeper, particularly where they form an integral part of a hydroelectric dam. On the Rhône (Rhône River) the lock at Donzère-Mondragon has a depth of 80 feet; in Portugal, where the Douro (Douro River) was being developed in the early 1970s for power and navigation, the Carrapatelo Lock has a depth of 114 feet.

      On artificial canals, where conservation of water is essential, depths do not normally exceed 20 feet: water consumption can be reduced by the provision of side pounds either adjacent to the lock, as at Bamberg on the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway, or incorporated in the lock walls, as in the (1899) Henrichenburg Lock on the Dortmund-Ems Canal.

      Locks are located to provide good approach channels free from restrictions on sight or movement. Where traffic is heavy or push tows operate, adequate approach walls are needed both to accommodate vessels awaiting entry and to provide shelter from river currents while vessels move slowly into or out of the lock.

Lock gates

      Movable gates must be strong enough to withstand the water pressure arising from the level difference between adjacent pounds. The most generally used are mitre gates consisting of two leaves, the combined lengths of which exceed the lock width by about 10 percent. When opened, the leaves are housed in lock wall recesses; when closed, after turning through about 60°, they meet on the lock axis in a V shape with its point upstream. Mitre gates can be operated only after water levels on each side have been equalized.

      On small canals gates may be manually operated by a lever arm extending over the lock side; on large canals hydraulic, mechanical, or electrical power is used. On the Weaver Navigations Canal in England the hydraulic power for operating the lock gates has been derived for 100 years from the 10-foot head difference between the pounds.

      Vertical gates, counterweighted and lifted by winch or other gearing mounted on an overhead gantry, can operate against water pressure; as the gate leaves the sill, water enters the chamber, supplementing or replacing the culvert supply. The turbulence is more difficult to control, and the overhead gantries impose restrictions on masts and other superstructures of a vessel.

      The use of sector gates, which turn into recesses in the wall, depends on the physical characteristics of the site and on the traffic using the waterway; falling gates lower into recesses in the forebay, and rolling gates run on rails into deep recesses in the lock walls.

Lock equipment

      Ladders recessed into the walls provide access between vessels and the lockside and are vital in case of accidents.

      Bollards (mooring posts) on the lockside are used for holding vessels steady by ropes against the turbulence during lock operation; mooring hooks set in recesses in the walls provide an alternative anchorage against surging. Floating bollards are provided in deep locks; retained in wall recesses, they rise or fall with the vessel, obviating the need for continuous adjustment of the ropes. Signals, physical or visual, erected at each end of the lock indicate to approaching craft whether the lock is free for them to enter and, in the multiple-chamber locks, which chamber they should use. Control (control system) cabins, centrally situated, enable all operations of the lock gates, sluices, and signals to be carried out by one person from a push-button control panel. Telephone or radio communication between adjacent locks gives advance information enabling the operator to have a lock prepared in anticipation of a vessel's arrival. Experiments in France in the early 1970s were directed toward the automatic passage of a vessel through a flight of locks, the various operations at each lock, once initiated, continuing automatically until the vessel left.

Lock bypasses

      The passage of a small pleasure boat through a deep lock is an expensive operation if it is passed alone and can be hazardous if it is passed with large barges that might surge against it. Canoes (canoe) are normally brought ashore and manually moved around a lock on a portable trolley; larger pleasure craft can be transported on a cradle that is mechanically towed on a lockside rail track.

      Water chutes have been introduced in Germany for canoes and rowboats where there are rises of 30 to 80 feet; although more costly to install than a lockside rail track, they are more popular. The canoeist, entering the approach channel, pushes a button actuating the head gates, which rise to allow the water to carry the canoe into and down the chute, where it is kept in the centre of the chute by guide vanes. For upstream passage, canoes are kept afloat by descending water but require manual towage.

Boat lifts

      Vessels can be transported floating in a steel tank or caisson between adjacent pounds by a vertical lift, replacing several locks. Vertical lifts can be operated by high-pressure hydraulic rams, by submersible floats, or by geared counterweights. Hydraulic lifts with twin caissons were constructed in 1875 at Anderton, Eng., with a 50-foot lift for 60-ton vessels; in 1888 lifts were constructed at Les Fontinettes, Fr., for 300-ton vessels and at La Louvière, Belg., for 400-ton vessels. Similar hydraulic lift locks were constructed at Kirkfield and Peterborough in Ontario, Can.; the latter, completed in 1904, has a lift of nearly 65 feet. Float lifts were constructed in 1899 at Henrichenburg, Ger., with a 46-foot lift for 600-ton vessels; in 1938 at Magdeburg, Ger., with a 60-foot lift for 1,000-ton vessels; and in 1962 a lift at Henrichenburg for 1,350-ton vessels.

      Counterweighted lifts were introduced in 1908 when the Anderton lift was reconstructed. Each caisson was separately counterbalanced by a series of weights and ropes with electrically driven gearing. This method was used in 1932 at Niederfinow, Ger., with a 117-foot lift (elevator) for 1,000-ton vessels.

Inclined planes

      In the 18th century, inclined planes were constructed to transport small boats on trucks between adjacent pounds, using animal power and gravity and, later, steam. A series of planes was built in the United States on the canal between the Delaware and Hudson rivers to transport 80-ton vessels in caissons; a similar plane for 60-ton vessels was built at Foxton, Eng., to bypass 10 locks.

      Three planes have been constructed in Europe, at Ronquières, Belg., for 1,350-ton vessels; at Saint-Louis-Arzviller, Fr., for 300-ton vessels; and at Krasnoyarsk, Russia, for 1,500-ton vessels. At Ronquières and Krasnoyarsk, vessels are carried longitudinally up relatively gentle inclines with gradients of 1 in 21 and 1 in 12, respectively, while at Arzviller the site permitted only a steep gradient of 1 in 2¹/₂, necessitating vessels being moved transversely. At Ronquières the plane rises 220 feet and replaces 17 locks; at Arzviller the rise is 150 feet, and here, too, 17 locks have been replaced. At Krasnoyarsk the plane rises 330 feet from the downstream water level of the Yenisey River to surmount the hydroelectric dam; on top of the dam the caisson moves on to a turntable, where it is rotated through 38° before passing to a second plane (inclined plane) running down to the water level impounded upstream of the dam.

Inland waterway craft

      While early navigation of natural rivers was dependent on the use of sail for upstream operation, towpaths and animal haulage were provided when rivers were canalized and artificial canals constructed. Later, mechanical haulage was developed and is still used for local movement of unpowered craft.

      Steam, and later diesel, tugs (tugboat) improved speed of travel, particularly where lakes or estuarial lengths were encountered. Powered barges, towing one or more unpowered (dumb) barges, were introduced on rivers with adequate lock chambers; but on artificial canals double (or treble) lockage operations made this method uneconomical; and, except for local lighterage (loading, transporting, and unloading) or maintenance duties, dumb barges are little used on artificial canals.

      To meet competition from road haulage, with its greater flexibility and higher speeds, water transport must find its solution in its capacity for larger units, thus necessitating the enlargement of channels and locks. Consequently, the 300-ton barges operating economically early in this century have been replaced by craft as large as 1,350 tons and more.

      In North America, transport operators grouped dumb barges into assemblies, lashing them on either side or ahead of a power unit with similar barges secured in rows ahead. These assemblies of unpowered and individually unmanned barges are known, somewhat illogically, as push tows, and the power unit as a push tug. While these assemblies operate most advantageously on natural rivers, their development has justified heavy capital expenditure for enlarging lock chambers on some canalized rivers to avoid delays and increased operational costs arising from multiple lockage. In Europe, push tows normally operate with fewer than six barges, but on the Mississippi (Mississippi River), with its deep channel and 700 miles without a lock, a push tow may aggregate 40,000 tons, an assembly of 40 barges being controlled by one 9,000-horsepower push tug, with cabins and facilities for 24-hour operation. On the Ohio River the original 600-foot lock chambers were lengthened to 1,200 feet to obviate double lockage.

      Movement of push tows around bends, as on the Moselle River, is facilitated by portable power units attached to the bows and operated as required. Similar units can be attached to individual barges for transfer from push tow to wharf or vice versa; they can also be used for handling dumb barges in docks and for moving hopper barges short distances from dredger to disposal site.

Waterway maintenance

      Inspection vessels, self-propelled and equipped with echo-sounding appliances, are necessary for regular survey of the waterway. On natural and canalized rivers, which are subject to droughts and floods, attention is particularly directed to the location of the navigable channel: transverse soundings reveal channel movements and enable marker buoys or perches to be relocated and shoals removed by dredging (dredge); longitudinal echo-sounding readings normally suffice to locate shallow lengths on artificial canals.

      The dredging plant is an expensive item of waterway maintenance. Bucket dredgers for major operations are supplemented by suction, or grab, dredgers for localized work; hopper barges are required for transporting dredged materials to disposal sites, which should be numerous enough to minimize the transporting period, so that the dredger remains fully operational with a minimum of hopper barges and towage units.

      Bank revetment (retaining wall) requires special vessels for carrying piling frames and light lifting tackle; other service craft are needed for concrete mixing and general duty.

      Lock gate renewal is normally planned to ensure that a predetermined number of gates are replaced annually; special vessels equipped with heavy lifting tackle are needed for transport and site handling.

      Divers carry out underwater inspections and repairs; although scuba-type diving has been developed for some underwater operations, helmet diving is still needed for prolonged work. Both types of diving require special craft with specialized crew and equipment for servicing the divers. Salvage craft equipped with pumps and heavy-lifting tackle are used for removing obstructions from the channel or for raising sunken vessels. Tugs handle the service vessels because many are used only intermittently, and thus power units are not economical. Dry docks or slipways, workshops, fitting shops, welding bays, and other special facilities, usually grouped in the vicinity of the administration offices, are part of every modern canal-maintenance system.

Christopher Marriage Marsh

Waterway systems

Administration

      Modern inland waterway development has been largely carried out by governments, in contrast to early canal construction, which was mainly undertaken by private enterprise. Most of the older canals were subsequently acquired by the state and are administered by them or their agencies and are subject to comprehensive regulation, frequently by independent commissions. International commissions representing the states concerned regulate navigation on the international waterways. In the United States the waterways are basically a federal responsibility, with their development undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but state governments and local authorities also participate in the administration of many local waterways. The Interstate Commerce Commission has responsibility for the regulation of the common carriers and requires them to publish their rates. For some major multipurpose projects, public corporations were established to undertake and administer them.

      In Europe and the former Soviet Union the national networks, mainly based on navigable and canalized rivers linked by canal, were developed by the governments, which retained responsibility for finance and administration. In Britain (United Kingdom) most canals were brought under government ownership beginning Jan. 1, 1948, and are administered by the British Waterways Board.

      Europe's main waterways have long been accepted as international waterways with navigation free to all vessels and equality of treatment of all flags guaranteed. The chief regulatory commissions are the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (Rhine River), the Danube (Danube River) Commission, and the commission for the canalized Moselle. There are also a number of bilateral agreements between states. Wars and political considerations following them have from time to time interrupted the freedom of navigation. A provisional Rhine Commission was operating in the early 1970s; a new Danube Commission was established in 1953 after the signing of the Austrian state treaty, when freedom of navigation throughout the river's length was fully restored. With the creation of a number of international organizations in Europe, a high degree of cooperation between states for the development of the inland waterways and the regulation of navigation was achieved, particularly through the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the European Economic Community, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Council of Europe.

      In North America a U.S.-Canadian International Joint Commission has functioned since 1909 with general authority over the boundary waters. The St. Lawrence Seaway is a joint project, administered by the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority in Canada and the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation in the United States.

      The Panama Canal was originally administered under the Panama Canal Convention of 1903 by the United States, under the supervision of the army. Panama-U.S. relations were frequently strained, and in 1964 the United States agreed to negotiate new treaties concerning the existing canal and construction of a new canal at sea level. Later both countries agreed to a new treaty recognizing Panama's sovereignty over the Canal Zone.

      The international status of the Suez Canal, constructed and administered by the Suez Canal Company, has frequently been a matter for dispute, peaceful and otherwise. Only in 1904, under an Anglo-French agreement, was the Constantinople Convention of 1888, establishing the Suez Canal as an international waterway open to all in war and peace, finally implemented. In 1956 British presence in the area ended, and troops were withdrawn from the canal zone; the Egyptian government nationalized the assets of the canal company and the administration was assumed by Egypt, but the 1967 war closed the canal until 1975.

Major inland waterways of Europe

      After the end of World War II, the growth of transport by inland waterway in Europe, coordinated by the various international authorities, resulted in an enlarged and integrated network brought up to a minimum common standard for craft of 1,350 tons. With the Rhine, the Moselle, and their tributaries dominating the German system and providing outlets for the Dutch and Belgian systems and connecting with the French network, main improvements were concentrated on the international Main-Danube Canal and on improving the north-south route of the Nord-Sud Canal (or Elbe-Seitenkanal). The latter canal (completed in 1976) leaves the Elbe about 20 miles above Hamburg and, running south, joins the Mittelland Canal near Wolfsburg, Ger., reaching a total of 71¹/₂ miles and shortening the route between Hamburg and the Ruhr by 134 miles.

 The Main-Danube (Main-Danube Canal) waterway connecting the Rhine with the Black Sea was completed in 1992 and provides a route for traffic between eastern and western Europe through Germany, accommodating craft of 1,350 tons throughout its length. Following the Main River to Bamberg in Germany, the route proceeds by artificial waterway, including a section of the Regnitz Canal to Dietfurt, thence by the Altmühl River to a point below Kelheim, where it joins with the Danube, crossing the Austrian border at Jochenstein. The 44-mile Bamberg-to-Nürnberg canal section, completed in 1972, includes seven locks with a combined lift of 268 feet. All locks are 623 feet long and able to accommodate vessels of 1,500 tons. Improvements of the channel of the German Danube, begun in 1965, include a pair of locks at Kachlet, just above Passau. In Austria four pairs of locks to take 1,350-ton craft have been built.

      The damming of the Danube at Ðerdap (1970–72), the Iron Gate rapids, on the border between Serbia and Romania, was undertaken in conjunction with the improvement of navigation through these dangerous waters; it incorporates vast hydroelectric power plants. Two locks, 1,017 feet long and 112 feet wide, with two chambers each, are being built to facilitate passage through the Iron Gate. Journey time for ships traveling from Black Sea ports upstream to Belgrade, Vienna, and central Europe will be reduced from approximately 100 to 15 hours by this project, and traffic is expected to rise from the present 12 million tons annually to 50 million tons.

      France's (France) waterway network of nearly 5,000 miles is based primarily on its rivers, but many of the low-capacity canals are being raised to the 1,350-ton standard. A major development planned in the 1970s in cooperation with West Germany was the construction to this standard of the North Sea–Mediterranean waterway via the canalized Rhône and Rhine rivers. With four existing locks built for the Grand Canal d'Alsace, a projected lateral canal between Huningue and Strasbourg, the project was modified in 1956, and the four remaining dams were to be built on the Rhine itself and bypassed with short canals including four locks, three with two chambers each. Canalization of the Rhône (Rhône River) started with the building of the Port of Edouard-Herriot downstream from Lyon, and work proceeded on 12 locks and dams. Two new ports, serving Valence and Montélimar, were being constructed. Improvements were also made on the Marne-Rhine waterway, which provides an important internal trade route connecting the Paris Basin with the industrial regions of Alsace-Lorraine. The improvements included major works on either side of the Vosges summit level, replacing 23 old locks. At Réchicourt a new lock with a lift of 32¹/₂ feet bypasses six locks and a winding section of the old canal; on the other side of the summit a new canal section bypasses 17 locks, which formerly required 8 to 12 hours to navigate. On this section the inclined plane of Saint-Louis-Arzviller deals with a difference in level of 146 feet with a horizontal length of 422 feet. Two tanks each carry a 350-ton barge. Their 32 wheels run on four rails, and two sets of 14 cables connect the tanks to the two concrete counterweights. Improvements have been made to routes connecting the Seine with the north and east. The Canal du Nord was completed in 1965, and a bottleneck was removed on the Oise Lateral Canal with the building of two locks to accommodate through convoys to Paris.

      In The Netherlands (Netherlands, The) the extensive canal system based on large natural rivers and serving the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam has required comparatively little modernization; but to avoid the Maas (Meuse) River, between Roermond and Maastricht, the Juliana Canal was built in 1935 and improved after World War II. The Twente Canal, opened in 1936, improved communication with the industrial east. Most important of the postwar projects was the building of the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal to enhance the capital's value as a transshipment port. The Noord-Hollandsch Canal from Amsterdam to Den Helder was constructed, and the IJsselmeer was linked with the Ems estuary across the north of Holland. To shorten the distance between Rotterdam and Antwerp by 25 miles, the Schelde-Rhine Canal has been built.

      Italy's (Italy) waterway system, based on the Po Valley, is cut off from the European network by the Alps, but it is also being brought up to higher standards.

      In Scandinavia there are two major commercial artificial waterways: the first, the Trollhätte Canal, connects the Götaälv (river) upward from Göteborg with Lake Vänern and with the Finnish lakes and connecting canals; the second, the Saimaa Canal, in southeast Finland, connecting the vast Saimaa Lake system to the sea, was being reconstructed at the time of World War II. After the Soviet-Finnish War, part was ceded to the Soviet Union; (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) but in 1963 it was leased back to Finland, modernization continued, and the canal, with eight large locks replacing the previous 28, was reopened in 1968.

      In the Soviet Union, water navigation played a major role in the country's economy; and after World War I its great rivers—the Dnepr, Dvina, Don, Vistula, and Volga—were linked to form an extensive network, making through navigation possible from the Baltic to both the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Black Sea and the Baltic are connected by three different systems, of which the most important is the link between the Dnepr and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, by way of the Pripyat and Pina rivers, a 127-mile canal connecting with the Mukhavets River, a tributary of the western Bug. This system is the sole wholly inland waterway connection between western Europe and the Soviet systems, giving through access to the Caspian and Black seas. When the Rhine-Danube and Oder-Danube canals are completed, a second route will be provided, via the Berezina River, a tributary of the Dnepr, the Viliya, a tributary of the Niemen, and a 13-mile canal through Latvia to Riga. The last link reaches the Baltic through Lithuania and Poland from the Dnepr by way of the Szara, a tributary of the Niemen; the Jasiolda, a tributary of the Pripyat; and a 34-mile canal. Other important links are the Volga-Don Canal, 63 miles long and completed in 1952, and the Moscow-Volga Canal (Moscow Canal), built between 1932 and 1937, which flows 80 miles from the Volga to the Moskva River at Moscow. The White Sea–Baltic Canal, built in 1931–33, runs from Belomorsk on the White Sea through the canalized Vyg River across Lake Vyg and through a short canal to Povenets at the northern end of Lake Onega, through which it passes to the canalized Svir River, Lake Ladoga, and the Neva River to the southern terminal at Leningrad. The total length of the system is 140 miles, reducing sea passage between Leningrad and Arkhangelsk by 2,400 miles; through its 19 locks it rises to 335 feet above sea level. In the Soviet Union the Ob and Yenisey in Siberia are connected by canal, and the Karakumsky Kanal (Karakum Canal) has been built from Kerki on the Amu Darya and is being continued westward to the Caspian.

Major inland waterways of North America

      The U.S. (United States) and Canadian (Canada) networks of inland waterways are based on the great navigable rivers of the continent linked by several major canals. Additionally, to reduce the hazards of navigating the Atlantic seaboard and to shorten distances, intracoastal waterways (protected routes paralleling the coast) have been developed. The total inland U.S. system, including protected coastal routes, approximates 25,000 miles, of which well over half has a minimum depth of nine feet. The largest system is based on the Mississippi (Mississippi River), which is navigable for about 1,800 miles from New Orleans to Minneapolis, and its vast system of tributaries. This system connects with the St. Lawrence Seaway via Lake Michigan, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Illinois River and with the Atlantic coast via the New York State Barge Canal (Erie Canal) and the Hudson River. The two intracoastal waterways are the Atlantic and the Gulf (Gulf Intracoastal Waterway), the former extending from Boston, Mass., to Key West, Fla., with many sections in tidal water or in open sea. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway comprises large sheltered channels running along the coast and intersected by many rivers giving access to ports a short distance inland. New Orleans is reached by the Tidewater Ship Canal, a more direct and safer waterway than the Mississippi delta. The Pacific coast canals are not linked with the national network, but two major projects of importance are the Sacramento Deepwater Ship Canal and the Columbia River development, which will provide more than 500 miles of navigable river from the Pacific to Lewiston, Idaho.

      The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 saw the fulfillment of a project that had been envisaged from the times of the earliest settlements in Canada. A continuous, navigable, deep waterway from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes was the obvious route for opening up the interior of North America; but natural obstacles, such as the Lachine Rapids north of Montreal, had prevented its realization. The completion of such a waterway required agreement between the United States and Canada, which was difficult to achieve. In 1912 the Canadian government decided to improve the Welland Canal to provide a 27-foot depth with locks 800 feet long and 80 feet wide; but because of World War I it was not completed until 1932. Although a joint project to include hydroelectric power development on the International Rapids section had been provisionally agreed upon, final agreement between Canada and the United States was not reached until the early 1950s. The Canadian government undertook to raise the standard of the waterway to a 27-foot navigation depth between Montreal and Lake Erie, and the United States agreed to carry out other works, including the bypassing by canal and locks of the Barnhart Island–Cornwall generating dam at the foot of the Long Sault Rapids. This agreement enabled work on the seaway to begin in 1954. The resultant deep waterway, navigable by oceangoing ships, extends about 2,300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the head of the Great Lakes in the heart of North America.

      After Montreal Harbour the first lock is the St. Lambert, which rises 15 feet to the Laprairie Basin and proceeds 8.5 miles to the second Côte Ste. Catherine Lock, which rises 30 feet to Lake St. Louis and bypasses the Lachine Rapids. Thereafter, the channel runs to the lower Beauharnois Lock, which rises 41 feet to the level of Lake St. Francis via a 13-mile canal. Thirty miles farther, the seaway crosses the international boundary to the Bertrand H. Snell Lock, with its lift of 45 feet to the Wiley-Dondero Canal; it then lifts another 38 feet by the Dwight D. Eisenhower Lock into Lake St. Lawrence. Leaving the western end of the lake, the seaway bypasses the Iroquois Control Dam and proceeds through the Thousand Islands to Lake Ontario.

      Eight locks raise the water 326 feet over 28 miles from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. The St. Marys Falls Canal, with a lift of about 20 feet, carries the waterway to Lake Superior, where the seaway terminates.

Economic significance

      Despite the large capital investment required to modernize existing inland waterway systems and for new construction, water transport has demonstrated competitive strength as a carrier for commodities in the movement of which the time factor is not of prime importance, such as minerals, timber, and many agricultural products. In the same way as the canals of the 19th century contributed to the development of the Midwest in the United States, the St. Lawrence Seaway has led to an expansion of industrial activity on the regions bordering the Great Lakes. Economic expansion along North America's rivers has followed capital investment in improvement of navigation along them. In the Soviet Union, similar development of vast areas was made possible by linking the major rivers to provide through routes.

      In continental Europe the eight member countries of the Conference of European Ministers of Transport (ECMT) experienced a growth in total tons carried by inland waterways from 385 million tons to 472 million tons in the years 1964–68. Whereas in 1938 Germany carried 90 million tons of freight on its inland waterways, by the end of the 1960s the Federal Republic of Germany alone was carrying over 230 million tons a year; East Germany was carrying an additional 12 million tons. Nor was this increase limited to the earlier years of the decade, as is shown by the volume of goods passing along the Rhine, which rose from 187 million tons in 1963 to 265 million tons in 1969. Most European countries had the same experience: the Soviet Union, which carried over its 233,000 miles of navigable waterways 239.5 million tons in 1963, transported 322.7 million tons in 1969.

      It is difficult to judge the economics of water transport compared with other transport forms because of the different operating systems. On most international rivers, for example, there are no navigational charges; but tolls are charged on most national artificial waterways. Costs of water transport are therefore mainly operating costs, which are considerably lower than the total costs of movement by other transport modes. This situation partly accounts for the fact that in the 1950s and '60s in the United States, costs per ton-mile stayed practically the same or fell slightly. Mergers of carrier companies and technological developments also contributed to price stability.

      It has been calculated that in the Federal Republic of Germany one horsepower could move 330 pounds (150 kilograms) by road, 1,100 pounds by rail, and 8,800 pounds by inland waterway. Water-transport cost was said to be one-sixth the cost of transport by road and two-thirds the cost of transport by rail. Other transport carriers contend that such comparisons are not valid, because public investment in permanent structures (i.e., canals and locks) is not always taken into account, whereas for railways private investment in right-of-way costs is reflected in carrying charges. Nor has the inland waterway industry been without its difficulties. In Europe in the 1960s, for example, a surplus of carrying craft adversely affected profits, although by the 1970s this problem had largely been overcome.

      In summary it may be said that the real advantages of water transport are being maintained or enhanced by modern techniques, especially by more powerful towboats capable of hauling up to 50 barges carrying 80,000 tons; around-the-clock operation is made possible with towboats refueled in midstream and barges attached or detached while the tow proceeds along the river; at ports, automatic loaders cut turnaround time to a minimum. It remains to be seen whether the resurgence of water transport so evident through the 1960s and '70s will be maintained. A major question mark is the barge-carrying ship, analogous to railway piggybacking of truckloads, which promises to provide through transport by barge from inland ports across oceans to foreign inland destinations.

Ernest Albert John Davies

Additional Reading

Coverage of both Old and New World inland waterways is provided by Charles Hadfield, World Canals: Inland Navigation Past and Present (1986), heavily illustrated. L.T.C. Rolt, Navigable Waterways (1969), provides a descriptive account of inland waterway networks.J. Phillips, A General History of Inland Navigation, Foreign and Domestic, 5th ed. (1805, reprinted as Phillips' Inland Navigation, 1970), contains a complete account of the canals built in England up to the end of the 18th century. Ruth Delany, Ireland's Royal Canal: 1789–1992 (1992), details the history of the canal from its beginnings through its years of decline and disuse to its late 20th-century restoration. Osborne Mance (Harry Osborne Mance), International River and Canal Transport (1944), chronicles the history of the commissions controlling and regulating operations on the international waterways up to the end of World War II. Roger Calvert, Inland Waterways of Europe, 2nd ed. (1975), contains a nontechnical account of the principal European inland waterway systems, including interesting diagrams, maps, useful itineraries, and an international bibliography.Discussions of the growth and importance of canals in the history of the United States are found in Ronald E. Shaw, Erie Water West: A History of the Erie Canal, 1792–1854 (1966, reprinted 1990), and Canals for a Nation: The Canal Era in the United States, 1790–1860 (1990); and Russell Bourne, Floating West: The Erie and Other American Canals (1992).Two well-known international canals are treated in D.A. Farnie, East and West of Suez: The Suez Canal in History, 1854–1956 (1969), a comprehensive and detailed study of the history of the Suez Canal and of its impact on the foreign policies of the imperial powers in relation to the Middle East; and David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 (1977), a history of the canal's construction.Ernest Albert John Davies Christopher Marriage Marsh Ed.

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